First, I’d like to commend the Cohasset Board of Health for their efforts to maintain and improve the health of Cohasset citizens. Also, I am very supportive of the military and the sacrifices that it makes on our behalf.

However, in my opinion, the Cohasset Health Board members’ decision to keep the age to legally purchase tobacco at 18 instead of raising it to 21 is wrong-headed and dangerous.

Robin Lawrence’s reason to vote against increasing the age to buy tobacco is particularly troubling. Her reasoning is that 18-year-olds should be able to buy tobacco because 18-year-olds can serve in the military.

Smoking kills 50 percent of people who smoke (and other people, too, if you include smokers who fall asleep with a cigarette and burn the house down with everyone in it). Half of the soldiers everywhere who smoke and who survive wars will die of smoking related illness, so how does that justify not increasing the age at which people can buy cigarettes? The decision is particularly egregious since it is the Cohasset Board of Health that voted against a simple and effective measure that may have improved the health of Cohasset citizens. Apparently the members of the Health Board haven’t seen anyone die of lung cancer, head or neck cancer, or emphysema.

As a physician who has had to deal with the devastating effects of cigarette smoking in many patients, I am deeply disturbed by the decision of the Cohasset Board of Health that likely encourages young adults under the age of 21 to start smoking.

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